TerraPod
by FawkesBlog
Summary: The Terra-Pod; A self sustaining planet colonizing craft, on its test run, witnesses the destruction of earth. What scientists predicted would be one or the other, this book chronicles the combination of humans becoming multi-planetary and facing their extinction event.
1. Chapter 1 Passengers

Chapter 1 Passengers

The earth rolled amongst the black of space, the ship drifted in orbit. Charlie had been living aboard for 4 months now. He was test subject #1756. The term Ship is used loosely here. Terra-Pod was a ship, it transported. The predominant function, the item of the test was more important. "This vessel is the seed of a mighty oak tree." Was one of the quotes plucked from a speech by a journalist. Apart from the rocket filled with gallons of precious fuel to force it, and its cargo out of earths atmosphere; There was this seed. A Terra-Pod. "Everything man needs to create, sustain and build." Terra-Project's plan was to plant trees in the universe. Charlie was selected from millions, he was ordinary, as were most of the other test subjects. A cross section of planet earth. Charlie liked to think he was representing Red headed people in the United Kingdom and abroad.

Most mornings Charlie sat on the viewing deck, he was required to ingest caffeine at 0800. It was a probably a beautiful spring morning in the UK. All that gave any indication of time's presence aboard the Terra-Pod was the monitors on their wrists. This morning Charlie sat with Sam and they indulged in conversation. The schedule that Terra-Project had the test subjects on was different for everyone and rarely left time for socialising. Every Thursday Sam had some time before mandatory exercise and after stock check. On occasion when Charlie and Sam talked they seemed to condense hours into minutes with each other. Their eyes never left each other's gaze. Neither of them could remember what they talked about even moments after parting. After months of this high chemistry, swapping biological messages, Charlie arrived at the idea that he was in love with Sam. It seemed so unlikely when they sat next to each other this morning. She was dark skinned, black haired with a strong Thai jawline and soft nose. Charlie often jokingly imagined the possible monster child they could create; ginger hair and freckled white skin with Thai facial features. Then he realised he was, albeit jokingly, thinking about their children together. They had been discussing Sam's country. She still teased him about the line he put to her because he wanted to avoid being racist to the Dark skinned Asian who spoke perfect English. "My ancestral heritage" She would quip as often as she could.

There was a moment, the kind that where happening increasingly often. A pause, the kind that was becoming increasingly long. Both smiling at a shared joke, postures mirroring each other. Sam was a little bit disgusted at herself for even considering him as attractive in that moment. You're a slow blinker, she wanted to say, you take so long to blink maybe it's because your eyelashes are so long, longer than mine. Charlie took her smiling silence as intimate. He wasn't sure but he may of crept a few centimeters closer looking for a reciprocation, perhaps a kiss. When he saw a strange light flicker on her cheek. Barely perceptible though it was, through the window. They sat and watched in awe as the green of the planet earth was overcome by fireballs and smoke. The earths crust looked like it was convulsing and bubbling. They ran down the hall to the control room. Sam banged on the door with the bottom of a balled fist.

"Are you seeing this?!"

She screamed searching the faceless door for a reply.

"The situation is under control Sam, we need operational security now, passengers will be briefed."

Shot a tiny speaker above the door after a lengthy pause. She stared into the camera that accompanied it, knowing someone was looking back at her.

The five pilots sat in their cabin and alternated looks at each other and their feet. They had just listened to the last 5 minutes of the human race. In a flurry of communications beginning with a message along the lines of "Somethings going on here. Get out of there!" and culminating in the commentating of a battle. It seemed a disaster had struck earth, it's countries had turned on each other and after that." I'm sorry i can't stay." Silence. To begin with the Pilots believed that other countries had blocked communications. Until they horizoned on south east Asia. Explosions and fire engulfed it. Primula, the captain was the first one to take her eyes off the scene and she span in her chair. She pitched her voice to grab the co-pilots attentions and ordered them to their action stations, to run tests on earth. They snapped out of it as a group and drew themselves towards the masses of computers that filled the room, each to a different one. Primula knew that their was precious little to be gained with these checks but she needed time to think, she turned and stared back to the planet. Primula Corradini was the first true space captain. The Terra-Pod had the ability to function independent of earth. All previous missions had enjoyed constant communication with earth. Their decisions made and controlled from earth. She knew that this mission was one of the first independent space faring ones, but hadn't quite expected this scale. Total independence from a dying earth. She thought over how this could have happened now that the gawking co-pilots gave her space. There were eight countries on earth with nuclear capabilities and it didn't seem too far of a stretch that some of them had deployed weapons. There was a thudding on the door and they heard Sam's shouts. The crew turned and looked to their captain. She hovered over the intercom before giving a vague response, worthy of a politician. Ensuring she had released the intercom, something others had learned the hard way, she spoke to the crew that studied her.

"I want as much information as possible on where got hit and the cause, nobody talks to crew until we have put a briefing together. Twenty minutes we will meet in the cafeteria and tell everyone, lets be quick so they don't get all worked up."

The crew by now knew not to reply and turned back to their consoles. Except for Alain, who still faced her.

"Do i have you permission to contact other vessels? Maybe we can piece together our stories."

"We have no way of knowing who is hostile, the world is at war."

Primula rose from her seat and looked out the window to the stars. Alain spoke to her back.

"We are all in space together, our ship is the most modern and versatile. We might have to re-supply and rescue others."

"Send out a signal to all vessels. Ask the crew to translate it, i want them to see it, to feel safe."

Alain looked at the rest of the pilots hard at work.

" Prim, why are they doing this? what are they testing?"

She glared at him.

"Get on with it, I'm going to run this ship until i don't have to anymore, we have our orders."

Alain breathed hard through his nose and turned to his computer. A test Primula thought, to see how she would react, how everyone would react in sheer panic. Pretty ballsy of Terra-Project to destroy the earth right in front of everyone.


	2. Chapter 2 Planetarium

Chapter 2 Planetarium

Everything sighed to silence. The constant mechanical noise dropped to nothing with a falling _woosh_. The ship's interior was coated in red emergency lighting. Charlie had been sitting on the observation deck. The earth before him, the same one he had seen explode and quake was gone. Darkness, no stars, nothing. Only red emergency lighting that cast its colour on everything. His first thoughts were of Sam, he hadn't time to think about what had happened. In the back of his mind as he ran, the fear and the adrenaline battled. Running down the stairs he and Sam met sprinting towards each other in a corridor. "Everything's gone dark outside." "We need to find the Captain and find out what happening." They ran the same way to the office, as they had months ago, witnessing earth destruction.

Primula had carried out her mission. She had kept the ship running for 6 months, even through the most ridiculous of tests. It had been two weeks since she was to be relieved of her duties. The lights that usually flickered in the pilots cabin were out. Just more red.

"Okay, were going to have to do this the hard way, i thought they would have come by now. Gather everyone in the kitchen, we will disembark together once I've briefed them."

The 3 pilots left the cabin and scuttled off, Alain ran into Sam and Charlie.

"The Captain wants everyone to meet in the kitchen now."

He ran off unconcerned that they were heading in the opposite direction to the kitchen. Sam arrived at the door that had barred her way last time. It was open a crack. She looked up at the camera and microphone that spoke to her last time, and pushed the door open. The captain looked behind her.

" Sam, kitchen please, I'll explain there. with everyone else."

"Where is everything? Is the ship broken?"

Primula shook her head. Sam was obstinate, self certain, she knew it would feel good to see her shattered, speechless.

"Sam 6 months ago when you were sedated because the G-force would be too much for you, you were actually taken to a simulation pod. The world was reproduced around us and you were made to think you were in space."

She was harsh, explaining with no trace of emotion.

"Cheaper, easier, there are lots of reasons we did this. There is a mission to space you can apply for that will be leaving in two months."

"So the world, its not gone? I MOURNED, for my family, for EVERYTHING."

Charlie looked on in horror. Sam had her face in her hands.

" So it was a test, you knew?"

" Yes, well i didn't know they were going to blow up the world. You signed contracts knowing there would be potential mental trauma."

"How dare you, I want to speak to my family, i want to get off"

" Follow me."

She started out the door.

"We're going to explain to the rest of them and then we can all get off this ship together. Even I don't know what's going on."

The rest of the group took it about as well as Sam did. One of the prominent disappointments was not actually getting to space. Primula assured them that there was an real mission to space, due to leave after their test finished.

The ships exit doors opened, casting red glow on the black walls of the room. Difficult to make out the shapes and sizes but the faint redness showed the ship sitting in a huge black dome, like a planetarium. "Sneaky bastards" Charlie said looking up and around as he stepped out into the dark room. Primula walked to the wall and brushing her hand along it she found the seam, pushed and swung open the door. The light that came from the new area was a beige colour, but no more illuminating.

"HQ is on emergency lighting, it must be running on back ups."

The planetarium they had lived in was contained in part of the building hermetically sealed from the middle. Emerging from a stairwell they came to the actual launch pad. They walked past the cylindrical hole in the floor, on a walkway that skirted the room. The roof, sealed with glass, showed daylight outside, clouds. They came to the door. People stiffened in surprise as it slid open in its usual manner, revealing a vinyl floor with footprints indicating where to stand. The building still lives. Primula, used to the sliding doors, stepped forwards onto the footprints. The lights went from beige emergency lighting to illuminating.

"Welcome home, please step forwards one at a time."

Alis spoke the clear and familiar accent of every artificial voice in the Agency. It was like hearing an old friend. The door slid closed behind Primula. There was an identical one in front of her. The group watched through the glass as she was scanned in red beams and the room took samples of her breath and photos of her retinas.

" Please choose weather you would like.."

"Verbal"

"Verbal analysis: you are deficient in iron. Welcome home, please step forwards one at a time."

Primula found herself alone after the antechamber. The main hall of the headquarters was silent, she studied it. Standing on the raised platform and stared out into the fields of desks and cubicles on the open plan floor. she saw her desk her friend's, and the glass meeting room where she first heard details of the mission. The door made a hush as it slid open and Bikaner came out interrupting her thoughts and from his silence apparently amalgamating them. Primula set off down the stairs as others filtered through opting for Verbal analyses.

" Type 2 diabetes, blood sugar 3.04,Welcome home, please step forwards one at a time."

The Terra Project headquarters was so advanced it couldn't exist yet. The huge opaque domed ceiling had ribs that ran the length of it, it almost looked like a giant shell. It tapered at one end and the other was rounded, like a teardrop shape. The building that had been buzzing with energy, loud with rumbling machinery and the hum of human chatter now stood dead still. The group weaved their way through the dimly lit work floor between the desks. Some of the computers still had lights on but the screens were black and they hibernated. A thud reverberated around the hall. Everyone looked about hoping to see someone take the blame. It sounded again. _Thud_ , people started to home in on it coming from the front of the building. Alain arrived finding Primula standing next to the entrance doors. The sliding door that lead to another chamber, which lead outside. In the poorly lit chamber, a dark figure stood in the doorway, it swayed back and then lurched, striking the door with its face, smearing it further with blood. _Thud_. People made their way to where the sound was emanating from. They peered through the glass doors and watched the figure sway.

"Zombies ohh man I knew it, there, oh god."

Bikaner turned and scurried back into the gloomy work floor he once crept through with fear. His mind now on the thrashing Zombie a door away blocking their exit. Primula stared at the creature, it's hands clawed at the glass.

The captain had been staring at the zombie, though she wasn't calling it that in her head, for 10 minutes now. This was the only way out of the building. It occurred to her the destruction of the earth they saw, may have happened. This thing, was not a human anymore. The eyes were squinting, bloodshot in the gaunt face. Dark varicose veins riddled the neck. It had no clothes on its torso, bleeding from a wound on its side and drooling blood from its mouth. She made the decision to remove it from the chamber, for it to be disinfected. Alain grabbed her shoulder, she hadn't realised anyone was still with her near the door.

"Captain, you have a plan?"

"I must clear that exit, there is only one way to."

"i would like to volunteer."

"I will be facing the, I will be facing _it_ alone. Whilst you, and the rest of the group are behind the space port doors. I will then clear the room and submit myself for analysis."

" With all due respect ma'am the violence in this creature is clear, I'm not saying you cant handle it alone, I'll stay at the consoles as back up, and run tests whilst the others are safe behind the other doors."

Primula had turned and started walking before she answered

"Very well."

Alain was to run tests to see if there was an airborne virus, she would gather weapons. Alain remained thrilled and challenged under her command. She seemed to constantly operate at full throttle. The Space port doors hushed closed as the last of the group, except the two on the office floor, arrived back where they started. They couldn't see or hear much through the sealed doors. It was more painful to try and glimpse, guessing than to put your back to the wall and hide from your thoughts. The Captain went off her limited knowledge of zombies to prepare for her apparent attacker. Bikaner's definition as he fled from the scene was reverberating around everyone's head. Primula only knew what they were, had never watched a zombie film. She decided her analysis was better than presumption; the thing was clearly injured, slow moving, unable to use its voice. It looked violent in its movements, it's mouth clasping shut and opening. It did look a lot like a zombie, so she decided to presume, to kill it; stab it in the head. Alain's voice came over the radio.

"I got an analysis; Alis detected pathogens in an otherwise healthy person, was given a blood sample and decided to quarantine. They had this virus when they came in, but no symptoms. I don't think it's airborne."

"Check Alis's logs for what happened, tell me after."

The corridor lights blinked on as she walked down them on her way to the kitchen.

"I don't know what it is but you don't die from it. It's pretty grim, I didn't watch the whole thing. They died of dehydration. Their pulse had stopped completely, for almost 2 hours, then they woke with a lot more wrong with them. Most of the body dead, core functions remaining. Which was the walking, the screaming."

Primula was walking and thinking about the ramification of re-animated corpses. The western corridors were already lit, as was the kitchen. The possibility sunk in and she pressed her back to the wall for cover.

" Radio silence, possible multiple enemies."

She slid one of the smaller knives from the block, it fit neatly in her hand and she crouched towards the door with it. The noise at first wasn't perceptible, only the change from silence, and then it grew. Breathing, wheezing. The doorway next to the kitchens was a few meters away. The knife tightened in her hand , as a low groan entered the silent corridor. She peered around the corner and saw a shadow reflecting on the white walls coming from the room next to her. it was moving, hobbling. she stood in the hallway, her heart thudding.

"OOOOOHHH Oohhhh goodness!"

The elderly man ran back into the doorway he came out of. Primula had stood still, it had taken all her might. The adrenaline pulsed through her veins, her body was ready for the fight. There was Only and old man who turned so quick his dressing gown flapped in the air behind him.

"Alain there's someone else in here, kitchen, western hallway."

She clicked her radio off and stood by the doorway.

"My name is Captain Primula Cor.."

" CORADINI!"

The elderly man joined in towards the end of the sentence. She turned into the doorway just as the man jumped up from his bed, his dressing gown open, in shorts and vest.

"Ailbe?"

primula loosened her grip on the knife only now. When Ailbe, the eccentric hermit who had been living in the Terra-Project headquarters met Primula and Alain, his hands were pressed in earnest to his chest.

"Splendid greetings to you!"

They both had the same look on their face. After a while though they were glad of the old mans strange way of speaking. Primula was the least surprised of the two at Ailbe's ways, and the fact that he was still here. Wandering around the corridors of the headquarters as he had when others wandered too. Ailbe was a senior research scientist. The only thing stopping him from being too eccentric to have around was his ineffable genius. Especially in a fair few of the fields Terra-Project concerned itself with. Due to the top secret nature of the project and its agendas, it suited Ailbe. If he had worked for a company even remotely in the limelight he would produce constant terrible PR. The mission he had was selected for, and chose willingly, was to the moon. One of the planned missions was to take him to a permanent base on the moon. Possibly to get him away from generating bad PR.

"You've been inside all this time?"

The three of them sat in chairs in Ailbe's office come bedroom.

"Happily yes, not a soul else"

Ailbe flicked his hand under his chin and brushed his beard forward.

"What happened at the end? where did everyone go?"

"Well there was a jolly great deal of rushing about, the news was showing some pretty horrid things and all of a sudden everyone went home, to their families, cats. They ran out the door of the most secure building in a hundred miles, blaggards, poor souls i mean."

"Only one realised their error and tried to get back in, Alis quarantined them, i almost overrode it too! Skipped over to the console just as the turn came over our friend and he started using his face to try and break the door."

Prim and Alain looked on waiting for the rest.

" Poor Soul"

Ailbe added.

"The turn?"

Queried primula.

"Ah yes, once one is infected by means of a mucus membrane encountering infected tissue; A bite or scratch. They turn into the disheveled beasts you have most likely seen in the doorway. At least that's what i got from the TV."

Primula stood.

" We need to take care of that thing, the others will be getting worried."

"You intend to go outside? There's more of you?"

He shook his head. "

The last i saw of the world it was a ruin."

She had taken butter from the staff fridge. This was one thing she had learned the hard way, butter on a shiny floor was as friction-less as week old ice. She stood a few paces to the side of the door and gave the nod to Alain. The door hissed open silence, then the wretched breathing and sore screams coming advancing. It fixed onto Alain and spread out its arms as it picked up speed to a hobbling walk towards him. Alain froze in terror at the maniacal beast that struggled towards him thrashing, screaming. It exited the doorway and with its hands clenching and clawing at Alain. It's first foot glided on the slippery surface, drew apart from the other until its legs kicked up in the air. It landed with a sickening crack on its head. blood trickled away and the silence of the room was restored. it lay on its back in a patch of blood, Primula with the shock of what she had encountered and of the easy victory came towards it. Lurching into life it reared it's head, spat and snatched for Primula's legs it had one hand clasped onto her shin and was moving its open mouth closer to her trying to bite when the captain plunged her knife into its temple. It fell back again and began spilling a separate patch of blood from its open wound. Dragging the body outside, the Sun hit and her skin immediately began to bake. Thee body rolled over as she dropped it and she took her first breath of fresh earth air in 8 months. The quiet was like space when you weren't around bleeping machines or people. The birds were all that she could hear, there was an eerie beauty. As per her orders, Alain told Alis to decontaminate the chamber. The blood was washed away and the air purified, this process took 15 minutes. The doors slid open, behind her. Primula was enjoying the sun so much. She took a last deep breath and stepped into the room, the door hissed shut behind her.

" welcome, please say your name."

" Primula Corradini"

"Welcome captain Corradini, please choose weather you wou..."

" Verbal" "Unknown pathogen, unknown risk, unknown sub-type. Iron deficiency. Recommendation: quarantine. Medical staff have been alerted. Please issue a blood sample."

The smell of the cleaning chemicals still hung in the air of the analysis chamber, she took a stiff breath in, heaving her chest up. The entry door opened.

" Whatever it is; You have it, but it wont kill you."


	3. Chapter 3 Preperations

Chapter 3 Preparations

The staff once worked so hard every day in the privacy of this facility. How different things where now to how they imagined them. There was a real sense of being a part of something, perhaps it was the secrecy, the lofty goals. The result was the beehive of activity at Headquarters that created massive secret advancements. Hangar 2 was a testament to the hard work. It was just another hangar in the row of eleven, but it was the cleanest. The rest were a mess, storage or just non-descriptive sheets covering incredible technology prototypes. Hangar two had wax white floors and a Terra-Project logo in the middle, the lights where bright and all-illuminating. It was a dummy set up, a squeaky clean pretend workshop, showing off the best looking goodies. When people came to visit, limited though they were this was what they saw. Alain explained this as his voice reverberated around the huge hall of the hangar. Polished versions of the Terra-pod, non functioning shells, jet engines, Poly-green houses and life support systems all sat around the room in a neat display. The tour worked, they walked by huge machines in awe and stroked the smooth hull of space-ships.

"Leaving dirty fingers on things have gotten people disciplineries before."

Alain remarked to Sahil, who was running his hands along the windscreen of a high speed planetary transport rover. He reeled back but then saw Alain's smile and tapped the hollow screen.

"Okay guys we have a list, and a schedule lets get going play times over."

He began ordering people in groups to carry out equipment to the truck. Sahil walked around the room for a few more minutes as the others got to work. Here was the technology the rest of the world had been chasing. He saw things he had seen in concept online or in meetings.

Sahil had worked for a company that made a successful biscuit tin press stamping its brand onto metal sheets. After a huge financial success the company grew stagnant. People started to create competing machines. After investments in industrial espionage they realised how close other business's were to a similar machine. With all their money, the biscuit tin company hired a group of the highest flying up and coming engineers, put them in a room together and told them to create something. The simplicity of this tactic was effective and patents were filed daily. a few of the team had been spending time focusing on clean energy, Sahil chose Solar. He had been waiting delivery of a part, one he had designed on a computer screen days ago. The office was lit blue only by the bright computer screens and Sahil sat alone in the middle of the room. It was getting dark now, the part wasn't arriving today. He took a sip of his now ice cold black coffee which shook him as he got up from his desk. There was only one staff member at reception on weekends and he smiled as Sahil left the building. A black nondescript car with no discernible features sat next to the curb. From the blacked out window a door opened. A man in a green tweed suit stood next to the car, he made the car look small in comparison. A large man, wide bodied and with such a huge face and hands. He would be intimidating were it not for his feminine stance, he spoke.

"Solicited by a well dressed man in an unmarked car at night, Sahil you are most definitely not in a spy film."

It took some seconds for the statement to register but Sahil's response was to a blank stare.

"Don't worry you've not done anything wrong"

The large man came towards Sahil

"We're looking for people for a new project and we're impressed by your work here."

Still frozen Sahil watched the man reach into his pocket and produce a burgundy business card.

"If you're interested in working for someone, rather than a big company, who has a bit more about them than shed loads of money, get in touch."

In his first move Sahil picked the card from his hand

"Thank you."

He said through a nervous smile. It was in interactions like these that his childhood spent in books and not with people came through. The man half bowed and retreated into his vehicle , sidled his unique frame into the back seat as it roared off. The business card had an email address on in a plain bold font: AdamGressingham .

Nobody except Sahil had asked what fact stood for, and when he got the answer " Field Assessment of Civilian Team" he didn't quite know what to make of it. Acronyms were banned in his work place, so that the upper echelons could understand, or at least Google what he was on about in his designs. He played the sentence back to himself as he sat in the nondescript black car. Still nothing.

"I'll show you, I haven't shown anyone else because, well it's secret, but they wouldn't appreciate it like you."

The car pulled up to a fence, the window on Adam's side slid down and the flash of red beams entered the darkened back of the car as his face was apparently scanned by a camera on a pedestal. His mixture of shock and interest was apparent and Adam reassured him that would not be the coolest thing he saw today. The car pulled up to a huge white dome that looked like it was a stadium. the entrance was a sliding metal door, with another one straight after it. They left the car and the silent gray haired driver sped off immediately. The world was scorching compared to the air conditioned car. once Sahil's eyes had adjusted and he had scanned the building he turned around and looked at the cast expanse of tarmacked area, a flat wide open space with obviously huge buildings so mall in the background and nothing between them.

"Me first"

Adam stepped through the doors that slid closed behind him. Sahil heard faint rumblings of a loud voice inside, but couldn't make it out. The entrance then opened for him and he stepped forward just as Adam had done.

"Welcome please step forward one at a time."

Adam stood beside the door and watched Sahil's eyes as he admired the ceiling open mouthed.

" office floor, admin and such"

He said walking.

" over here we have meeting rooms, boring.

" They walked down a side hall to which Adam occasionally pointed down a corridor and said

" Boring!"

They came to a set of metal stairs, which looked like the kind you would use a fire exit. Adam skipped up them quickly. At the top there was a door that had a tiny square window at head height.

"This is where the magic happens, FACT nerve centre, if you don't have an IQ over 130 you will be incinerated before you pass the threshold of the door."

Swinging the door open Adam shouted.

"Look lively everyone, pretend to be doing something while I give a tour of the place."

Nobody so much as raised their head or flinched. the room had consoles all around the edges of it, and a empty space in the middle, it was no bigger than Sahil's living room. Sahil was drawn to the faint humming of the glass encased computers that stood in a row, each as tall and as wide as a person.

"Ah that's Alis! we wrote her ourselves, she doesn't get my jokes but shes the one who greeted you on the way in."

Sahil smiled at Adam, who really did like it when people got his jokes.

"We operate out of this modest room, some of the greatest minds in the world, we keep TP up and running and find ways our mathematics and tinkering can improve, well, the world."

Adam began walking around the edge of the room. Sahil followed.

" These are the most high-tech, the most secure, the single most advanced computer scientists in the world, undisputed FACT."

"Yeah, why fact? civilian team? what does it have to do with your acronym?"

"Well fact was our mission, to use our mathematics to recruit a civilian team with the necessary traits, but we accomplished that and our skills required use still."

Adam strode back towards the door.

"Okay, bye nerds!"

With this he left abruptly, Sahil caught the door in Adam's wake and followed.

"You know Sahil I would have had you on the team were you not getting spat into space by TP."

Ailbe motioned people to gather round a cloaked item in the middle of the room. It was no bigger than a lawn mower. He stroked the sheet as people filled the room.

"I give you, WOmbl!"

in a swift motion the silken sheet slid off into Ailbe's hands and revealed the glittering robot. It had two circular lights on the front of it that made it look like it had cute baby eyes. The solar panels jutting out of its sides like arms added too the personification of the device that sat before them.

"World Orbiting Mechanical Borrowing Liaison. This used to be NASA's finest earth orbiting repair man, now it is WOmbl, the marvelous recycler of the skies!"

Those who had grown to like Ailbe smirked at his eccentricity, some frowned at his confusing behavior wanting to know why this robot sat in the middle of the room. Ailbe elaborated.

"WOmbl was easier to hack into than a Christmas turkey! I won't elaborate on the complex system of magnets it uses to travel, but this machine can be controlled by me and has thus far converted 7 disused earth satellites to further Lunar base's purpose."

"from this room?"

Chimed Bikaner.

"No, this is a scale model I built, the real one is currently passing over Denmark, attempting to collect an archive of the internet that i believe to be stored temporarily in a communications satellite."

"We can scavenge most the parts we need from headquarters. It's fuel once were in space we need Ailbe, we have no way off getting."

"it's likely that WOmbl Will be able to borrow some from space debris, I'll have a look for you."

'Once we're in space' The phrase resounded amongst those present. The meeting was the night before, and the plan was audacious. It cost millions to get anything into space. It took so many hours of calculations , tests, involving many different specialised people. It was these reason, among many others, that meant it was cheaper to study space's isolation, on the earth. This was why they had been locked in a planetarium and fooled for 8 months. These were the challenges in front of them that were in the way of getting themselves into space, away from the dying planet. The ground work had been laid by The space agency's employees. There was a launch due, had everyone survived, so everything was in place. The group wasn't ill equipped for such a task. Sahil and Ailbe could do anything involving computers. Charlie and Alain between them were knowledgeable mechanics. Primula knew the ship inside and out, everything that could possibly go wrong with it. Roberte was useful as a labourer. Bikaner was the least skilled, Sam spent a lot of her time caring for him. He had Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, or ME. Some days he was up and around, trying to pitch in. But most he was resigned to bed, most days he resigned himself there. He was not trusted with any tasks, due to his unpredictable health.

Auto lights flickered on in sequence along the white hallway. One didn't come on for a second and flickered. Astronaut training, the still white atmosphere of the room, was purposely reminiscent of space. People came here to be trained in the zero error margins of space travel. the ubiquity of the emotionless white washed room was a test in of itself. The recruits would need to be comfortable with isolation for what lay ahead.

" I want provisions in each cell, we will keep the further sections locked down and let them in one at a time to be interviewed in the secure test room. We can talk through the intercom with them."

Primula spoke fast to Roberte as he struggled to keep up with the bobbing pony tailed captain striding down the halls. The interview room at the end was plucked out of a film, one way glass, a single table and two chairs.

" Are you sure about this, going out there by yourself?"

"I would rather be alone out there than with people I might have to look after, cost me my life."

Primula searched him. He was clearly skilled. A hunter he claimed. He was cocky, rude. She knew he wouldn't take any shit if he did find people.

"Okay, Ailbe showed me some satellite pictures of a town, 50 people maybe. Looks like it has big walls, i want you to check it out, surveillance only, use the radio." Her last glance at Roberte was seeing if he was ready. Was she ready? Nobody was ever ready to evacuate earth.


	4. Chapter 4 Earth

Chapter 4 Earth

Roberte sat with his boot heels resting on the stools legs.

"Bar tender, another."

He poured him self a drink from a dwindling bottle of whisky.

"I usually take ice.."

Wooden walls and floor, pictures hanging, a few ale casks around for decoration. This was a old theme bar that had fell into disrepair, helping it look that bit more authentic. It was thick of a years dust, Roberte drew swirls on the polished counter top.

" fucking space, i bet we explode on take off, mars? pfffft."

He stood up to go to the toilet, realised where he was and immediately undid his trousers and urinated on the floor. He swayed gently. The alcohol made him glow with invincibility. He walked over to the window buttoning his trousers up. It was getting dark, his best idea in fact was to stay in doors, safe tonight and head out tomorrow morning. He could secure the door, have some more drinks. The dusky street lit up, buildings flashed. The sound of a car followed the headlights as it sped past the bar. Roberte quickly zipped up his trousers and ran to get his gun off the bar. Alain could still hear the engine in the street. it hadn't stole through as he expected it to. The engine was low, stationary. His heart beat thick in his chest, moving his body with every beat. He convinced himself he was sober enough to deal with this. The trail of urine had trickled towards him he shuffled to avoid it,but then he heard people, voices. The urine changed courses on the wooden floor and the stream flowed directly to him. Muffled voices came in through the window. He felt the wetness on his leg, the smell arrived too.

" Hey,"

Roberte shouted with instant regret.

" I'm in here, I'm coming out, no worries Okay?"

The voices were more numerous than they seemed from the bar already. He pushed the door open. Roberte had just finished counting seven people in a semi circle across the street when the eighth, whose steps he heard quickening towards him, rammed the end of his rifle into Roberte's stomach. The world went dark and aside from a vomitous feeling in his throat and heavy blows that could have landed on any part of his body, Roberte felt nothing.

It is a strange feeling to overwrite memories, especially the mundane ones. Alain had entered the gates for work every day half asleep, he now left them in a pickup truck, to scavenge for supplies in an unwelcome world.

"You know if there's people around, they wil have stolen the food, they'll be dangerous too."

Sahil was on edge out of the compound. He trusted the computers and the buildings more than he trusted Alain driving.

"We need to go to the town for this storage anyways. I bet we get some clues about what happened here, whats happening. "

" You think we'll run into anyone?"

Charlie didn't answer, instead drove on and let the question sink in. The question of evacuees had been raised at the meeting. They had the capacity to evacuate hundreds, if not thousands. Ailbe had been in favor of this. He showed the images a satellite had captured of tilled fields and smoking chimneys. People lived on the planet still. Year long veterans of a rancid world. Alain swerved by wreckages of cars, some empty, some with dead inside them. The wrecks became dense, the truck began swerving around them on a narrow two lane road.

"WHAT THE FUCK"

Everyone lurched forward.

" I didn't have my seat belt on what are you think.."

" SHUT UP, _Quiet_ "

Charlie hissed. He pointed over the dashboard towards a bus that lay diagonally across the road.

"Can't you go round it on the grass? its a 4x4"

Alain noted the shock on Charlies face and turned to see what he was watching. Filthy once white rags trailed along the floor, her hair was knotted and matted with mud. It didn't look towards the car but it was walking towards it.

"One of them."

"Okay we have guns, lets just see how it acts."

Charlie stopped the engine and stepped out of the car with the assault rifle that was lying in the foot-well. He side stepped out the way of the door with his barrel fixed on its slow lumbering movements.'Shoot on sight' Primula had warned. It started to breath impatiently, with difficulty. Its head lifted on a jaunty angle with wretched moans, it fixed its eyes on Alain. The moans grew louder as a lust filled the creature. It screamed and roared, moving faster, hobbling. The cries were growing and were joined by other tones, movement began on the bus. As the seconds drew on, the thing drew closer and movement was all around Alain. He pointed his rifle between targets and began pacing back towards the pickup. Several more filthy half dead limped around both sides of the bus. Their arms outstretched reaching towards Alain.

"GO GO GO"

The crack of gunfire filled the air as Alain fired three shots at the head of the closest one. The last two hit others that had swarmed behind it now. Then, swiftly tracing a length of the bus which was now crawling with them he shot a burst of rounds. It hit glass and metal with a 'ThuckThuckThuck'. Blood splatted onto the remaining shards in the window. The bus still groaned teeming with the hostile dead. Retreating Charlie hopped into the waiting drivers seat and slammed his door shut. He had turned the key in the engine just as the first hands touched the front of the car. Alain had been sitting in the passenger seat, he had made no movements in all the time Charlie had fought fast. Only when the engine gave a pathetic whir did he come back into the world. Bodies lay with their hands outstretched on the bonnet, they rose their heads. Their faces exploded and they slumped in a pile of flesh on the bonnet. Sahil standing on the bed of the truck had took a head shot. He repeated and the resulting blood splatted on the windscreen. Dirty bloody hands appeared at the windows along with faces of rotten, deceased people. Their teeth were broken and grimy and they screeched and groaned, mirthlessly thrashing their bodies against the windows. The engine ticked over whirred limp before roaring into life. Charlie pulled down on the reverse lever and the bodies fell to the floor from the front of the car. The orange pickup was covered in blood and the attackers were left in a pile, some got to their feet to give chase and others crawled ungraciously along the ground their arms outstretched baying for the flesh of the occupants. The pickup reversed into a sedan half way into a three point turn and Sahil had only just managed to stay standing holding on when the engine changed gears and roared away back from where it came. Nobody spoke until they were clear of the last scattered wreckages.

"Left at the junction adds a couple of miles, we'll get there."

Sahil was slumped in the back of the pickup and stared off in the distance. He had shot several off them in the head, the kick of the rifle had made his shoulder sore and there was a underlying silence he knew was from the shots. He struggled to make sense of what he had done in his head. He knew they were no longer human, he didn't really feel remorse. It was more shock. He hadn't froze, he had acted and shot something in the head. These that could be killed remorselessly, and would kill as well, roamed planet Earth in herds.

The orange truck ceased chugging as Alain killed the engine. Charlie's finger, ever by his trigger, he scrutinised the area. Sahil was sat in the bed of the truck, coming to terms with what happened. He was relaxing his muscles one at a time, just as he did after a stressful situation in the real world. Usually office confrontations or traffic. He was interrupted by Alain.

"Okay lets, move, watch for Aliens"

Charlie and Sahil both frowned at this name, but considered it. The slobbering creatures weren't that far from the portrayal of aliens. Aliens was a good term for them, the creatures and their creation was truly alien to the group. They were lead out of the car by Alain who rolled the chain link gates aside and lead the way into the compound. Rows of dilapidated industrial units with pebble dashed walls and rusty roll up shutters stretched away in the distance. Sahil was to look for the parts, charlie was the muscle and Alain was in charge of mission integrity. Alain was leading them quickly and confidently to one of the rows, amongst a section of them that looked like they had either been looted post apocalypse or were just run down. The shutter they arrived at was that of 'busy Bee´s Nursery'. It's shutter was unbroken, Alain produced a key from his pocket, jigged it into the heavy padlock that lay at the bottom of the door. He dead lifted the door single-handedly and it rolled back and up into the ceiling. Confused looks were shared as Alain completed this task and strode into the darkness, as he had done it before.

"so what you used to come here?"

" This is a TP workshop, top secret, off base"

The smell of plastic toys and rubber padded climbing frames was pungent.

"It looks like a creche."

" It's both"

The group now had an anxiety about them, produced by there encounter at the road block earlier. Everything was regarded with suspicion. The only thing that kept them pressing on in the indistinguishable darkness was the figure of Alain moving on through the toys, cots and games that weer scattered, dropped mid play. Too busy checking behind him, Sahil barely noticed Alain had stopped at a door at the back of the room. He swiped a card from his pocket against an area of wall no different from the rest. The door hissed open. Looking wooden from the outside this door swung and creaked with a heavy iron character. lights glimmered and hummed to life in the room beyond the heavy door. Once they were in the door shut behind them. The feeling of being out in the open was replaced by an isolated, confined feeling. The windowless room had a low ceiling, compounded by the low hanging racks that held electronics, chunks of metal, wires hung down from them. Below every rack was a metal table, the industrial type used in kitchens. A workshop in the back of a nursery. The smell of ripe and sweaty children's oft used toys, and the plasticised protective environment had now been replaced by a metal workshop, parts strewn everywhere, the smell of festering engine oil and a background of burnt plastic was a world of opposites. Sahil was finding it increasingly difficult to be surprised. From being selected for a space travel program, everything in between, and now being ready to fight off the un-dead around every corner. The workshop was a different class to the gleaming hangar 8 at TR were no flags, no presentation, everything had a functional and rough edge.. Charlie noticed on work bench had hundreds of smart phones in various states of disassembly on it. it was a littered mess. Alain was already at the side of the room, this time swiping a card, in a more evident machine, another door gave a click, evident of a heavy lock deep looked around with a tentative air as the others had done until now, Charlie didn't think he had been through this door before. not like t rest. it was hard to fathom how this space could fit into the small, grim lock ups in long rows. It felt almost as if they were underground. this room was full of crates and boxes, a rolling door was visible past the neatly stacked crates of all sizes. Various markings were on the boxes, Charlie noticed a few words he recognised, with displeasure; Suppressant, incendiary.

"Alain what is this place?"

Alain motioned Charlie to come with him, he stopped next to a large wooden box and slid the loose lid off it. all Charlie could see was packing confetti. he rummaged through this until he felt cold steel and pulled it out.

" A laser capable of discerning and disabling all lenses, say cameras, scopes, CCTV, within sight lines. Not very useful for us, but experimental."

It was CD like shape with several tennis ball sized spheres around it. Alain passed it to charlie, he handled the dangerous weapon with ease, and caution, it was apparently without a trigger.

"This is just an example, I'm not saying we need these but we need some of the stuff here, sooner we get rid of the chunky Chinese made rifles the better"

Charlie lifted his rifle and dropped it in agreement. The strap dug into his shoulder, easily 15 pounds.

" What else is there that we need?"

Charlie feigned interest, he hid his internal ambivalence well, as he had done in the military. He wasn't sure of Alain, and therefore Primula's intentions with these kinds of weapons. For now he would play the soldier, and wait.

"Anything bigger?"

he smirked.

Sahil had found the equipment he needed. He arrived the group in the middle of the room, Alain and Charlie had a trolley with one large chest high box on.

" It's got one of each thing we need in, you won't need a whole box of each. We have the printer remember the replicator. "

"I'll take two as a redundancy measure."

Alain shrugged and loosened the clips. Once the lid was fastened on the box Sahil double took it.

"What else have you got?"

" Military, not civilian Sahil, sorry"

" very funny."

The team walked over in unison to the roll up door. Alain had unlocked it, they continued to talk together mocking Sahil, the nerd of the group. The rusty shutter creaked up about a foot, Alain murmured; one, two three. Charlie had only just reacted to the shadows and the sense of danger outside the doors, when the other two gave their final concerted heave. the sound of the door rattling home immediately drew the eyes of the crowd of dead that gathered outside the door. They looked in with hunger. Charlie began firing almost immediately, Alain rushed to the back of the trolley and began pushing . Charlie's rifle cracked as bodies dropped. he moved forward pointing the gun and firing in short bursts. he stopped momentarily to kick the lifeless legs of an alien from the path of the trolley. The group broke free, but the shots had clearly roused at least 30 of the monsters. They came limping towards the group arms outstretching, baying for blood. Alain moved to the front and pulled the trolley, as Charlie and Sahil pushed from the back. They dug their shoulders in and leaned all the might into pushing the trolley. it was only as it began to pick up speed and they were away from the immediacy of being torn apart did they realise how much trouble they had roused. They advanced away from the group as the rattle of the trolley spurred on the aliens, retching and gasping. Charlie ceased pushing in a second, stood bolt upright and shot into the crowd that showed no signs of thinning. on crumpled bloody mess was replaced by another screeching monster from the horde. Ever advancing. If you missed the head all you did was slow them down, and anger them more. with splats of blood and roars from them.

"I'm empty!"

Charlie shouted as he regained the box. The slight incline imperceptible on the way in was now making pushing the trolley even harder. Charlie moved back to the trolley hearing the groans from his compatriots and began heaving. Sahil spat as he breathed heavily, his face pressed against the box. His thighs burned and he felt vomit on the edge of his throat. Charlie burst towards the gate pulling it open to the side. Alain moved to the back of the box in his place, put his back to it and sprayed bullets wildly into the crowd. He hit various places on the first row of bodies and some hit in the legs fell, tripping those behind. Some exploded and sent cartilage and bone into the crowd. Charlie Ran back to the trolley, determined to give one last pull, helping the box over the fences precipice. With this yank the trolley moved further away from Alain than he had expected, left a space that he pushed into with vigour, he stumbled and fell to the ground backwards. His legs kicked up into the air. The hollow wrap on the concrete as Alain's head bounced echoed around everyone's skulls. His eyes stung shut and all he could sense was the smell of the rotten dead and their weight upon him. He felt he was being eaten. His limbs were being pulled, crushed, the smell, the wetness of cold blood. Sahil had pulled Alain's arm, the dead, executed by charlie had fell on him. His head lolled back and forth with each pull by Sahil. Charlie was now swinging his rifle like a club amongst the group, the slower ones at the back of the pack. A tangled defeated mess of corpse guts atop a barely perceptible Alain lay in front of the gates. Charlie joined in dragging him out. He discovered his arm amongst a pile of limbs. The two pulled together and his limp body finally emerged. His clothes were as filthy as those who attacked him. the gate was pulled shut once they were through it and the very slowest of the aliens crashed into it as they sat on the other side. they snapped and clawed at Sahil and charlie who sat upright, Alain wriggled grossly on the floor and coughed. after a few minutes Alain was helped into the passenger seat. charlie reloaded his empty clips with bullets from the glove box. each one clicked into its place. the world was unsafe now. Every journey, every road, the world was a hostile place where danger never subsided for the living. With a last glance from the back of the struck as it pulled away, Sahil looked into the hungry bloodshot eyes at the fence.

Alain's face lay on the window, brown blood had smudged against it as they drove. His hair, usually impeccably neat was matted thick with blood. Primula saw first the blood on the bonnet of the truck. it swung in and the passenger side door stopped where she stood. soundlessly she picked Alain out of the seat and carried him to the entrance to the building. "Head trauma, concussion, minor contusions, please report to the infirmary."

The infirmary was empty when Charlie got there. A barely perceptible change in an almost constant noise lead charlie out of the room down the hall. There were smears of filth down the corridor grubby bloody hand marks on the white walls. He rounded the corner of the shower room to see Alain, lying on the floor of the cubicle in half, fetal half recovery position. Primula sprayed him like a mother sternly but with love washes a naughty messy toddler. There was no red left in the shower or on Alain, just bruises and cuts. " Primula that was serious, they walk in packs, gang up on you..." She pointed the shower head at him still, like a hose. "...it's not safe to go out there." " i killed one, i know how disgusting they are." " Roberte won't last by himself out there." "What happened?" she asked, still staring with solemnity at Alain. " We got everything you wanted, Alain got crushed by 10 of them for it." Charlie was clearly searching with this comment. "See anything you like?" " i would like to see how a few things work, you realise that stuff is 20.- 30 years ahead of what we are using out there" prim reach over naked Alain and clicked the shower off. "men's toys" she scooped up Alain's naked body and hesitantly accepted Charlie's help. With Charlie's unwanted help the two of them walked him down back towards the infirmary. Alain's head bobbed between them. not one to be confronted by awkward silence. Primula unusually relented, even she needed allies sometimes. Now more than ever. " The second test was of a military nature, not humanitarian. We had weapons to test in space, just as we had to test your bodies. " So cold when she talks about things, Charlie thought. "So what did you get from there for the mission?" " Protection." " From the Aliens? That's what Alain called them. We're going to need it if we stay any longer, call Roberte in." " He stopped radio contact within a day. I haven't heard anything from him."


	5. Chapter 5 Destroy the Brain

Chapter 5 Destroy the brain

The breathing of the dead was ever perceptible. The walkway offered a clear view down below onto the motorway as they wandered aimlessly. Masses of concrete that once held train, cars and people were now an endless labyrinth for the dead. It was where the underground railway and the motorway intermingled. the dead space, access tunnels, bridges and walkways through the huge concrete supports of the vast system. The man walked along the walkway in the dark, the light from the end of the tunnel shone through and outlined the cars, some wrecked and burnt, some parked with precision. The walkway split and turned to concrete walls on all sides, the man had to hunch down now in this tight corridor. Coming to fuse box and a door he stopped. reached into the fuse box and pulled a cord emanating from the top left corner. He then moved to the door and twisted the handle first left 3 or 4 times, then right twice. the door, which looked like it held an electrical substation or gas pipes clicked. The large man slipped his shoes off, held them by their heels and walked in barefoot. Adam Gressinghams computer was already on when he entered the room. It was normally in sleep mode when he got in. He sat down in his chair without taking off his coat. No blood on it today a message on screen read 'Mr. G you asked me to visually alert you of any changes in the network, there are; 137 personnel entries, 2 security alerts, 2 critical data breaches, one key-card log into tech vault 0004. What would you like to do now?' An excellent question thought Adam. The network was an amalgamation, predominantly The Space Agency's, other ones that relied on satellites or something else that could survive off grid. Adam had used these the past. If the survivors were dug in deep enough to be using one of these networks, they were a friend. Nothing had moved in 4 months, the last log in to a satellite ran internet was by someone in France, that was all the data he had. Adam would amuse himself at the thought of chubby politicians emerging from their bunkers about now. Having fed themselves plump on their freeze dried food they would probably take a bullet as soon as they stepped into sunlight. The world was tough now. So was Adam, so was his bunker. He typed a few commands and located the specific terminal that was causing the log in's and security breaches. It was one he had used before, in his own office and he had a good idea who it was.

'Please hack into Satcom channel 374 ;) Adam G'

Due to the nature of the apocalypse Sahil had not seen a winky face in some time. It was fourteen months AA (after apocalypse). Sahil only used this term inside his own head. A few months before then, and up to now he had been in dorm like rooms. Everyone he knew he could hear snore as they slept. There was no reason therefore, to send or receive a message. Even before then, not since his childhood had he used the ;) face. Now, 14 months AA a burly man in his late 30´s had messaged him to a computer that wasn't meant to exist, with an unknown device that given everything going to shit, shouldn't of existed either. After returning to earth and finding only chomping screeching monsters, Sahil started to feel an unknown sense of hope and confusion. His way around the log in wasn't difficult, he opened Satcom channel 374. Headshotscopeszx is online. A picture came through then opened automatically, it was of Adam's face in what looked like the front of a car.

"Open the door! Alain!"

Prim kicked the bottom of the door with her combat boots. There was absolutely no give in it. She kicked it again three times like you would knock on a door with your hand, thud, thud, thud.

"Alain what are you doing?"

He wouldn't lock himself in, wouldn't harm himself. She was getting no answers here. Primula gave one more futile boot in anger to the bottom of the door, now scuffed. She resolved to seek anyone else and interrogate them. Sahil sat in front of his computer, blinded to the outside world, he didn't notice prim until she was upon him. Intense from the start, gain the information quickly. If it's there. She pulled him back in his chair and span him around.

" Tell me, what the fuck is going on"

Sahil sat still.

"Do you have something to tell me?"

She closed in towards him, Sahil accidentally glanced at the screen, his eye betraying him. Her white eyes flashed wide she turned herself to look at the screen. Who, what is that

"Primula"

The gravelly phone voice came from the computer

"Alain has been affected, he suffered scratches at the vault and now his fever is a symptom of it. If he hasn't already started he will turn into one of them, Alain will be dead and instead you'll have one of those loose in there."

"Wait, where are you, what are you doing?"

"There is nothing left of Alain once the change happens, it's irreversible, irretrievable, there is nothing you can do for the afflicted, except make their final hours comfortable, and when they turn, destroy the brain."

"How do you know this for sure where are you, what's been going on?"

" There isn't time to explain now prim, I'm sorry but I-"

"Who locked the door?"

"Sahil did, and I sent Charlie, it is the only way"

Primula ran off at full speed.

Charlie stood facing the door of the infirmary, bloody smears still marked the walls from where he had arrived in the infirmary. He had helped carry him back in here himself. It wasn't that he didn't trust him, what he said rang true about the fever. If there was anyone who you would trust on these insane matters it would be Adam. He just hated it. what a world this was now. full of monsters and pain. he drew himself out of these thoughts and felt the heavy of the gun in his hand. , back to the task he thought. He drew a key from his pocket and slid it in the lock quietly. He heard the thudding of footsteps at full sprint down the hallway. He turned and instinctively pointed the gun towards them.

"Charlie, we can cure this, we have to try. I won't let you kill him."

She slowly advanced. Charlie lowered the gun.

" I don't want to, but you saw what that one was like, i've seen fifty, sixty of them, they aren't people any more."

He turned towards the door his gun pointed up at head height, he reached for the handle. Primula was behind him, she moved around his back and jabbed her elbow in his ribs, grabbing the wrist that held the gun. Swiveling her hips she sent a knee straight into his abdomen, which doubled him over. His back hitting against the door. Primula twisted the gun toting arm at his body and sent a flat left hand palm into his nose. He rebounded off the wooden door with a thud and his grip was loose from the gun, his mouth filled with blood. Primula had only hesitated in not sending his nasal bone up into the front of his brain. Charlie was slumped against the door breathing heavily through his mouth. Primula held the gun by her side. The breathing became scratching, it wasn't Charlie's, it was Alain's. The key was still in the lock, un-turned. She dragged Charlie to the opposite wall and propped him up. His stared at her through watering eyes. Primula clicked the lock open, the scratching renewed. She twisted the handle slowly until the door opened. She held the door there open less than a foot. Alain's face, drained and sullen but with ferocious bloodshot eyes bit at her.

"Alain?!"

Charlie, the intended killer seemed to show more hesitation to think of him as gone. Primula raised the gun between his eyebrows and pulled the trigger as soon as it was on target. She released her grip on the door and walked down the corridor. The door crept open until it stopped against Alain's dead body.

Charlie lugged a barrel off his shoulder and onto the flatbed pickup. He used a cloth to wipe the sweat from his face and stared out onto the heat hazed runway. The Headquarters were truly massive. He was at the maintenance shed, a speck compared to the 11 hangars, huge domed staff building, runways and various outhouses that littered the facility. He looked towards the fences that surrounded the facility and then back towards the buildings he had been tasked to protect. If there were Aliens in this area they hadn't found their way in here, that much was clear. Heat haze sat over the runways and made everything look vast and distant. Basra, Iraq; The heat haze sat similarly on miles of desert. Charlie had scanned it with a heightened tenacity as the haze falsely betrayed movement. His body was shaking with the low bass of explosion. Charlie sat against the corrugated steel. His back was beginning to ache, he un-tensed himself and stood up, he felt stiff and unsteady. Shelling could and often did happen at any moment, they seemingly had an unlimited supply of mortars shells. Apart from a few minor injuries the aim seemed to be breaking the soldier's spirit's. You were never allowed to forget you were at war, if you did you would be punished. These thoughts went through Charlie's head and forced him to right himself, he left the dark bunkers and got the eye straining confusion one gets upon leaving a dark cinema and an engrossing film. He stood squinting in the bright humid outdoors. The steel shelter was as quiet as the outdoors, everyone was silently getting on with what they were doing half an hour ago. The whole time he was in the army Charlie had been thinking; service, enjoyment, regimentation, why did he want to be here. His father had been in the Merchant Navy, men in his family seemed to seek service and solitude. He wished for something to get him out of the stinking self analytic mood. these questions to himself had come thick and fast especially since his encounter with that giant man. The man who left him with questions and the only answer was a burgundy business card with an email address on. he suddenly felt the presence of the card rubbing on his leg as he walked. He was on down time, no tasks to do, he headed for the rec room. How vague that man had been, had he known how prone Charlie was prone to fits of introspection? he sat at his computer screen, email open he had sat like this before, and had left without sending anything. The massive indecisiveness that can come only from contact with women. Not females this time though, a nigh seven foot tall man " if you are interested, here's my card". 'I'm interested' He typed mockingly in the text field. For a few minutes more he typed filler around this sentence, formalising it. he hovered the cursor over send. here he was again, indecision over the send button. last time he had moved the cursor to the end of the email, clicked and held the backspace, watching as it skipped over deleting all the words. he hated not being able to talk face to face. That email to Samantha was never sent. it was an email delaying the inevitable, he wasn't good with words, especially typed ones. The only way they were going to work out, his school sweetheart and him was if is if they could speak in person. He joked in his head that it was his looks that won her over. He wasn't bad looking by any means, but a porcelain white red-head whose long arms made all garments look ill fitting, was hardly a pick of the bunch. he had this sense of humour with himself that cheered him up always. he clicked send impulsively. the email had been sent, and he never spoke to that Samantha again. "What's your last name?"

"why?"

Sam had rolled a barrel up to the truck and hesitantly tried to figure out how she would lift it, not wanting to indicate she needed help. Charlie hopped down from the truck's bed.

"Ainsley, Charlie ainsley."

Charlie put both hands on the barrell and bent over it.

"Samateewang."

" Sam Samateewang?"

Charlie concealed a smile in his question.

" My first name is Porntip"

His smile grew.

" It means blessed angel, in Thai at least."

together they lugged the barrel onto the truck. Charlie smiled at the continued amazement and surprise he hoped would never end with Sam. The barrels sat in a pyramid on the edge of the truck-bed. He would never say Sam again and think back to the Sam of a different life, Porntip, he smiled again.


	6. Chapter 6 High Propensity

Chapter 6

"He's in there talking some shit about a fucking space agency, mars, drunk."

Erik was on guard. He didn't get any bullets in his rifle, but he held it as though he did.

" Just watch him, the boss wants to know why he's so god damn clean and showered. I mean you should have seen how his car sparkled, the only mud it got on was from the drive back here!"

The man shook his head and walked off. Erik waited for him to turn the corner. He had stood perfectly still since he heard the phrase 'space agency'. Betrayed no emotion. He let out a deep breath, wondering if he had been holding it all this time, surely not. The door behind him had no handle and was set in the frame, ill-fitting.

"Roberte, please tell me about space agency, _quietly_ , say no more to these people."

For all the time he spent thinking about her, Charlie hadn't spent a great deal of time with her. Though each encounter however left him reeling until the next. He was irrevocably mind, body, spirit in love with her. It was only in the past few weeks had the chemistry really come to boiling point between them. The pauses in conversations, deep looks at each other and the smiles they couldn't hide when they saw each other. Charlie was pretty sure now that she felt something for him. He doubted it was the gut wrenching roller coaster he felt, but it was something. The preparations Captain had them doing was arduous, and social time was usually limited to having a lunch break with someone.

Sahil had been comforted by Charlie after their encounter on the road left him distressed. they had sat on the bed of the truck for a while after they got back, charlie had told him "Don't hide from your turmoil, if you want rid of it face it." He spoke about Iraq, his turmoil. he thought of charlie as a thoughtful and pondering, yet decisive man, he had need for one of these now.

"Primula is not going to let this get out, she'll shut it down without a thought."

Sahil adjusted himself nervously in his computer chair. He enjoyed eluding the security measures and infiltrating databases, but ethics was not his forte.

" and for that matter she'll kick the living shit out of you as well mate"

It was phrases like this that made the only two British people's conversations illuminating.

" I don't feel great about reading others, or them reading mine."

" But i cant imagine its much more than what people put on social media."

Sahil chewed his lip and looked askance. They were, a detailed summary of everything. A particularly interesting item was polysearch2.0 which trawled through all the images on the Internet and returned every picture in which your face was recognised. A great example of how pervasive this technology was. One of the pictures was a grainy CCTV still taken from a camera in Sahil's office, zoomed in on the family picture on his desk.

" I don't know how to play it, everyone is stressed as it is. were getting by alright. Have you looked at mine"

"Charlie I've only looked at my own."

Charlie smiled at how sincere and fragile Sahil was.

"Show me?"

After some time giggling at all his unintentional photobombs in worldwide tourist photos, Charlie straightened himself up for the more seriously marked file: 'selection necessity'. He glanced over his head and verified Sahil's keyboard tapping to be on the other side of the room.

A mixture of hilarity and hubris masked the nerves showing now only through sweaty palms. Charlie stood outside Sam's door, he had just knocked and listened carefully for steps inside. He stepped back a foot so that they wouldn't be awkwardly close when she opened the door, he checked the tiny urge to run away. The door slid open and Charlie was hit, as always with every reason he loved her at once in the form of a very strange feeling roughly emanating from his stomach. It was difficult to stay standing when this happened. She had clearly just showered, her dark hair was wet, and her nipples showed through her t-shirt.

"Look Sam"

Charlie began already kneading his palm nervously.

" Wait,"

She casually interrupted.

" is this an in the hallway type of thing or a come in type of thing?"

she smiled, signaled him in and walked to the bathroom. Shutting the door behind her with

" Just a minute."

Charlie had realised he followed her walk when the door shut. His room was a plain as when he arrived. Sam had somehow dimmed the light to a fainter glow, and had hung various items on the walls. He sat down on the bed absently, but rose when he heard the rattle of the bathroom door. Sitting on her bed was too suggestive. She emerged from the bathroom with a gray hoody on, her wet hair was tied up behind her now. The hubris had faded and now seemingly only heaps of nerves remained.

"Right, compared to the apocalypse, this probably seems really silly, i mean, its..."

" Yes?"

she gave a sardonic smile.

" i fancy you Sam"

Choking he corrected himself

" I really, really like you Sam."

Sam gave a knowing, happy smile, it was like she always knew what he was going to say, unsurprised always.

" Well i didn't like you when we first met, i thought you were a cocky British soldier! But, i like you now, i think."

They still stood for a second. But she quickly advanced towards him, surprising him but he caught her by the hips and held her. Her kiss was sweet and his body rippled with euphoric pleasure, but the logistics of kissing someone almost 2 foot smaller than you needed work. She came down off her tip toes and locked into his eyes, like she had already done it a thousand times.

" There's something else."

He drew back from her gaze, still holding her hips.

" It's not important, not as important. "

"Good."

She put her hand on his chest and gently pushed his body until he stumbled back onto the bed, the one he had rose from for fear of being too suggestive earlier.

In the cramped one person bed the two lovers lay. 'High propensity' Charlie smiled thinking to himself.' they must be molecular level spies.' They knew before i did, that we would be lying in this sweaty single person bed, he thought. They got dressed and arrived to Sahil's embarrassment as a couple. He opened her file.

" Okay leave the room now please."

"It's fine, we will.."

"...Leave the room, now."

Sahil about turned and left immediately at this sharpness. It cut Charlie like a knife, he stared at her hurt and she looked back with a blank persistent gaze. Charlie was outside the room thinking about Sam's complexities. He had the feeling as the door bumped him as he moved slowly out, that this was the beginning of a confusing relationship borne from his complete yearning for Sam. The computer screen in the room lit up her face. She had not laughed yet, as Charlie had. The longer she sat there the more sorrow grew on her face. Charlie heard the beginnings of the metal steps below him, Sahil sat still , his eyes flashed, like a schoolboy caught. Her ponytail sat high on the back of her head. Primula interviewed the three at the same time.

" Who else knows?"

" Just us Primula"

Charlie was shocked at her somewhat somber tone, expecting to be chastised thoroughly by her.

" Sam, the complexities of your condition are known, there is no danger."

"Oh it's not mine I'm worried about, what do the others have?"

Charlie looked between the two women, who seemed to emit this wrathful field when nearby each other. Not wanting to enter it

" Guys am I missing something here? what's er."

" Apart from type 2 diabetes, which Alain had, Bikaner has heart problems, he wouldn't live long on earth, we wanted to see how he reacted to the jump to space."

" He doesn't know?! you're fucking sick, all of you"

"there's nothing he could have done Sam, we caught your disease earlier than any doctors would have, you will receive medication once we have the supplies up and running, i don't see the problem."

" so you were testing how our diseases would react to space?"

"Testing everything, i see you have performed your scientific duty."

She gave a passive aggressive smile to both of them, noted Sam's confusion.

" You didn't finish reading your file? i take it Charlie has read his, you were selected because of your high propensity to have sexual intercourse."

Charlie's face stung and his ear rang before he had time to watch the tiny Asian girl launch an open palmed slap to the side of his face. Sam now stood in front of Charlie who held his face, she looked at Primula.

"You don't get to threaten us anymore, your soldier is dead, I'm going to show Bikaner his files and we WILL be taking Bikaner with us.


	7. Chapter 7 Launch

Chapter 7 Launch

"Put your hands up."

They were blinded by the lights of Adam's vehicle.

" I warn you! I have had big trouble from less assuming people, yet prevailed, where are your weapons."

" There's an old rifle in the car."

"You're Norwegian?"

" Originally yes, i met my wife many years ago when i came here for work, we settled just near here."

He spoke urgently looking to form a bond with his captor.

" Where did you work?"

"A Science company, err, not very well known."

"Space-Agency, I can see no other reason for a Norwegian to move out here, I'm guessing you quit, judging by the age of your child ,mmmmm 8 years ago."

" Yes, you know of it."

" Adam Gressingham."

He lowered his rifle.

"I too have worked there, I'm currently on my way as it happens, clearly you are too."

He elongated the last syllable as he looked on into the car. No supplies in the back.

"Adam, I am Erik, this is Angella, and our daughter Solveig."

" Nice to meet you."

"Sir we intend to get off planet, my people, the people we lived with, they are bad. They captured on of your people, he told them about the evacuation, they didn't believe him. Killed him."

" I will keep your weapon, get in the back. You can explain later"

Adam stared off into the night beyond Erik's shoulder, raising his weapon.

"Move, now, into the back."

The family ran towards the headlights. Once they passed the glare of the beam the shape became apparent. Erik grabbed his child and held his wife back, in horror. The truck was smeared with blood. Pieces of flesh and guts were nailed on in various places. An entire head's eyes stared, its jaw waggled at them. Limbs hung, toes twitching.

"It's disguise! get in the back, we will wait for it to pass."

The family could hear the roars of the crowd that had came, glowing in the strong headlights. As they climbed in Adam slammed the double doors shut. Mumbles and thuds on the shell of the truck was heard. Adam climbed up into the driver's seat and slid open the viewing panel to the back, whispering.

"Hey pipe down would you, they will hear, we're going to wait for them to pass, in.."

He turned the keys and shut down the car, the lights went off and he whispered.

" _stealth mode_."

Solveig woke first, she looked out of the viewing panel into the front seat. She saw tree shaped air fresheners hanging from the roof, about twenty bunched together. she pressed her face right up against the window and saw Adam's chest rising and falling. She scrambled down and back into the arms of her mother who lay on the bench, waking her. Angela sat up. The only light that came into the back of the truck was from the viewing hole into the front eat and a tiny pin hole into the outside on one of the walls. She thought this was where a nail had come out. She remembered vividly what the nails held in. Chopped up zombies plastered all over the truck. It seemed to her that she was in a money truck, the typed that delivered to banks. Camouflage he had said, she shuddered. Everyone woke seconds before their conscious minds realised what was happening. The rumbling grew until it was obvious to Adam what was going on. He hopped out of the truck. The back doors flung open and the family squinted because of the light.

" Come and see, TP1 is taking off!"

The four stood there and watched as the rocket rose in blank sky and disappeared.

"It's true, there are rockets."

Salvation, his family would live.

The rumble of the rocket shook everything. Bodies felt hollow as it quaked, everyone's ears were filled with noise. The noise only lasted about forty seconds, but by then every decayed pale head had turned and with it the sullen bodies of the dead followed in that direction. Sound drew them, and this was the loudest sound the earth had heard for years. The battle with gravity tore on. Primula, Sam and bikaner were lay on their backs facing the sky. G force sucked them into their seats. Primula fought hard to keep her eyes from the blackness. her head rolled to the side. Sam was fighting the G force too, her fists clenched around the straps. Primula gave a long heavy blink as the force on her body intensified, her head rolled to the other side, her vision slowly faded to the sight of Bikaner's body, arms by his side, done fighting.

The ship had left the atmosphere. The rumbling faded first in the engines and then the astronauts ears began to adjust until silence prevailed. Adam had watched the rocket blasting through layers of air and fighting gravity with its massive fiery jets until it was a speck. The second most common feeling, after pure unrefined joy, that Sam made him feel, was anguish. He felt it in the pit of his stomach a hand reaching in and grabbing the bottom of his spine with a tight cold fist. There was only Charlie, Sahil and Ailbe now, Adam was on his way, sending selfies every few hours. Charlie had finished his last lap of the fence and had already counted hundreds rattling the chain link and more behind them, arriving by the second. There were no weaknesses _per se_ , but who knows how many snarling aliens the night held, most likely enough to force a fence or two down. Adam was driving through the night, Sahil was doing the computerised checks. Charlie had done all the physical manoeuvring off the space-craft onto the launch pad, the re-fuling. It was dark now, charlie guessed 10pm but it was likely much later. He had spent the whole day getting prepared for the launch and was exhausted. He knew that it was time to retire and rest, for he needed to do some very precise checks tomorrow. One tiny indiscretion and the take off would most likely result in a massive explosion, crash and burn. He had the window down in the truck. Poking his head out he looked up to the stars, checking each one's movement, one could be Sam's ship which was now a satellite traversing earth. With his head out the window he could hear the dead screetching on and rattling the fences with their jerky involuntary movements. He longed now for the silence of space, or for the touch off Sam which made everything else quiet, disappeared. Sahil and charlie begrudgingly went to bed in the silent dorms, both exhausted lying on their backs, staring at the blank ceiling. Sahil woke, he had set his watch to vibrate at 6.15am. He walked along to Charlie's room. The door was open and the bed sheets were empty and crumpled in a heap. Sahil felt alone, and a pang of anxiety came along with this. he hurriedly trotted along the hall to find Charlie. Zombies, evil dead at the gates, by myself, Charlie, Charlie

"Charlie?!"

He shouted. A door creaked behind him. Charlie emerged from what was Sam's room. it still bore the details; the finesse and beauty of her existence. Charlie had found solace from his bare room here last night. He had drifted to sleep wondering how long a smell lasts, as her sweetness hung in the air as if she was nearby. Sahil smiled at Charlie.

" Come on, let's get started. I think there is at least 3 hours of checks to be done, Adam should arrive just after that."

The conversation stopped dead in it tracks. the glass doors to the outside blocked from the morning lights by decrepit human faces.

"Stop"

Charlie whispered, he drew Sahil back around the corner of the hallway. A gentle bumping began against the glass, not quite the thrashing limbs that they were used to, but bump, bump, bump.

" Keep quiet, fuck."

Charlie rubbed his tired face with his hand.

" They must have broke the fences, let's take a look."

Treading lightly and arriving back in the corridor they had slept, Sahil shivered at how they had slept with the enemy at the door.

" you think that door will hold?"

"it's not one of the main building ones, if we can get back there were fine, if they can tear that fence down they can go through a building like this.

"I'm going to get to the roof, see how many they are, how we're going to get across to the main building."

They came into Sam's room and Charlie hopped up onto the bed. He pressed a roof panel with his finger tips and slid it off to the side.

"See if you can find a way to contact Adam."

Sahil smiled with nervous doubt in himself, but he trusted Charlie to protect him. He pulled himself up into the roof panel and steadied himself by dragging his boot on the wall, tearing a wall tapestry Sam had put up, that now hung only by one corner. Sahil went to the end of the corridor, the reception room had a laptop in, he might be able to contact Adam if he could connect to the TP intranet. the waiting room was like a doctors surgery. Behind the desk a laptop lay neatly shut, just as its owner had left it no doubt on his unexpected last day at work. Sahil rounded the desk and opened the laptop. He pressed the power button and it hummed and blinked slowly to life. 'ERROR' Sahil, sat down, flexed his fingers and began typing. Charlie was tearing through the insulation in the roof. exhausted he lay on his back, covered in the pieces of foam. He drew his knees to his chest and kicked with the soles of his feet at the roof panels. the only give was in the top left corner so he moved his body underneath it. he kicked again. the insulated roof of the building was had trapped heat, and he lay panting on his back, kicking out every time he mustered the strength through the humid exhaustion. his last kick must have flicked a screw out because with it the roof panel moved back a slight further than usual. a gap of light came into the empty roof cavity. he took a deep breath and stood up put his back to the roof and pushed through his legs. he lifted the roof panel with the load on his back. The gap was foot wide now and he crawled out onto the corrugated roof. It was only as he lay face down recovering as the sweat dried cold on his arms in the outdoor wind, that his brain allowed the sound to resonate. The crowd that filled the airstrip was never ending. as far as Charlie could see, where once there was heat haze, bodies swayed. The nearest few were only metres below at the sides of the building, they hadn't noticed him. Adam was correct, there was an army of the dead, hundreds of thousands.

Primula, Primula PRIMULA "Primula wake up!" The last sentence rang clearer than the first few dreamy words in her head. Hearing the snarling, she opened her eyes to find Sam fighting with her straps. Her eyes wide glaring beyond prim. She rolled her head, to the other side. Bikaner's head wriggled, his arms were scratching the air around him, his jaw convulsed wildly, he snapped and screamed around him. Primula was still in a daze. She looked at the belt release symbol that was only accessible by her, or he co-pilot Alain. She allowed herself a thought of him. The screams of Sam in one ear and the monster's in the other grew until Primula was back in the real world. She slammed her hand on the release button and their straps pinged open and floated off. Bikaner, now with dark eyes and erratic movements. Crashed forward into the window. He writhed and kicked. Sending himself back towards the other wall. Sam and Primula huddled together.

" Kill it Prim!"

" If i spill a drop of blood it could destroy the electrics, we have to try and get it out of the cabin."

Adept at moving in space primula coasted along the wall. She used the handles to get herself in the path of Bikaner. He was slowly coming towards her in a tangle.

" Get the door open!"

A flash of eyes after every irregular revolution, Bikaner flipped towards Primula. Lifting up, she kicked at him whilst holding a rail. He was sent hurtling to the door, Sam had just open it and moved out the way. Bikaner was heading for the door. His foot caught the roof and gave him traction. He moved still indiscriminately but the foot had changed his course. Sam paddling in fear trying to move out the way. It was like trying to sprint in shallow water. She couldn't find anything to hold to move out the way. Pushing off the wall she head instead towards the door, sideways she drifted and locked her body in tight as she came towards Bikaner. His hand out-sretched as far as he could only just scraped her shoe but it was enough to bring them closer. He now had his hands clenched around Sam's ankle. She screamed and kicked with the other foot, not looking as she stomped violently. The vice like hands were moving up her leg.

"Sam grab the wall, move!"

Wriggling, Sam grabbed the wall and made herself upright. Bikaner landed on the floor and lost grip of her leg. His violence was matched only by her struggle. They swam through the air both clawing with equaled tenacity. through the door they went, bounding off the sides, pushing faster through the arteries of the space station. Primula was starting to climb her way towards them.

" Primula, open the air-lock, I'll lead it there!"

She knew what this meant. for either landing or docking, the air-lock was a door to the outside world. The decision was hard, but made in an instant. Sam looked behind her as she pushed along the corridor. The air-lock had opened. She would use herself as live bait in there. The monster was slowed at traversing the corridor. It arrived at the airlock and was upon Sam in an instant. The door closed. a speaker blinked on.

"Sam in five seconds I'm going to open the door, you'll only have.."

"..Do it NOW!"

With a deep breath Primula pressed the button. Sam had maneuvered the monster towards the door. She pushed and kicked. Fighting to push it away. She choked on the atmosphere. and gave a last shove with her feet, pushing the zombie off into space, it tore some of her clothing with it. Sam span and snatched for something but got only a handful of air. Her mouth wide open gasping. The detail of edges she could have grabbed slipped away. The ship drew away from her. Her vision was closing in but not before she glimpsed the gigantic white ship with the earth glowing the background. The zombie flew away from the ship. Still hungry for Sam who drifted slowly away, lifeless, still. Thrashing, chomping, its limbs shrivelled and convulsing. the corpse flipped and furled through space, blackness completely surrounding it as its greasy hair and torn clothing flapped. The undead creature would thrash and scream as it hurled through space until it was sucked into something that destroyed it, or it landed somewhere and continued its indefinite march.

Charlie couldn't see the end of the crowd. It stretched off in every direction. there was no motion to it, no direction. All the bodies just swaying sporadically amongst each other. Charlie rubbed his brow with his forearm, holding it there in front of his eyes for a while. He dreamed of space, of mars, of Sam. Safety on another planet. perhaps no rivers and stream, but the pervasive death that followed you; snapped at your heels here would be gone. He and Sam would be the founders of generations. The forebears of a new world. If he could escape this awful place, and with that he began looking for ways out. It took only seconds to register what the smash of glass might be. Charlie had peeled the roof layers back and slid into the cavity again. He peered down into the building through the hatch. He could hear the noise rising. they had broken through, he saw shadows in the hallway now. He ran in the dark bounding across beams and fluffy insulation. The office was at the back of the building, the aliens were bounding against the walls on their way down the hallway. Charlie picked up speed to reach Sahil before they did, his foot missed a beam and shot straight through the plaster roof. He summoned incredible strength to pull it back up imagining the zombies gnawing at it, dangling above their heads like a worm on a hook. He had just pulled it back up and felt the wet blood through his trousers, determined to carry on when he heard. " Charlie!" In the hal shout half whisper. a ball of scrunched up paper came through the hole. The hole was above the reception desk, which had Sahil cowering under it, as the hordes drove by in the hall. Charlie shook his head and mouthed 'What'. Charlie lay so his head was by the hole and whispered.

"There's too many to run for the hatch, I'm going to make this hole bigger, and you're going to stand on the desk and climb up."

Sahil hunched up tighter under the desk and shook his head nipping his eyes tight closed.

"get ready."

Charlie had time to see Sahil mouth ' _no fucking way'_ before he pressed himself up and with a cringe stomped at the edge of the hole. Plaster fell down in crumbs onto the desk. the herd still pushed its way down the hall. If any of them had noticed they were swept along quickly by the weight of the mass. Charlie peeked down through the hole. Sahil's eyes were wide. The raspy cries and bodies hitting the walls drowned out the sound of another kick. Last one. The plaster flapped off onto the desk.

"Grab my hand Okay, ready."

Charlie grimaced as he reached his arm down through the hole. Closing his eyes he waited for ages, trying not to image the dangling worm on the hook. Sahil willed himself to stand before he could even consider the ramifications. The roars loudened immediately. He turned to see the crowd shuffling by, and they turned to him. Hands reached over the desk, knocking the pieces of plaster off. They were still being dragged away by the crowd's momentum but it was slowing. Sahil stood on the chair, reached out and grabbed Charlie's hand. Feeling the warm hand of Sahil, charlie pulled up, got to his feet and pulled again. The might with which he was taken upwards spilled Sahil from the rotating hair he stood on. he lurched towards the desk, suspended still in mid air. Charlie wobbled correcting the swing. Hands writhed beneath Sahil's feet and he stood on them and kicked as Charlies vice grip stopped the blood in his hand, now his forearm. he was being dragged upwards, away from the monsters.

" Some help?!"

Sahil grabbed the edges of the hole and pulled. After it crumbled away he managed to get an arm and lever himself up. Charlie threw him on the pink insulation.

They sat with their knees hunched up on the peak of the metal roof.

"You think Ailbe's going to wake up of his own accord?"

Sahil was sat with his chin resting on his knee and arms wrapped around.

"He hasn't since i've known him."

There was no way off the roof, unless you were willing to wade through decrepit corpses. The rounded edge of the terrapod building was 50 metres away. They could see the square launch port attached to it, but had no way of getting there, to freedom.

" Adam will probably arrived before Ailbe wakes up."

The sun still yellowed the morning sky. All they could do was wait.

"Wait inside if you want, in the roof cavity."

"Nah we need to be seen, better chance if there's two of us here."


	8. Chapter 8 Still

Adam flicked his lights off. The entrance gate was perfectly intact. It stood just how it had done years ago. Every other fence was crushed and lay on its side. Or had huge holes torn in it.

"Are we here?"

"Yes, stay quiet though, not safe yet."

Adam nudged at the gate with the front of the truck, it resisted for a second, and then pinged backwards. He coasted into the field of bodies. It would be so much fun to tear into them, see what this thing can do. He thought this, but knew it would be seconds before it was all clogged up and they were stuck in a field of living dead. so he barely nudged the accelerator. Most of them were pushed gently out the way, the odd one was squashed like a bug, that was enough to satisfy Adam. The truck neared the front door of the domed building. The last time he had pulled up here it was in an air conditioned limo. Now he was in a security truck smeared with the guts of the dead, a family of three in the back. He tried the computer he had been messaging Sahil on. He imagined the old fashioned phone noise echoing around the empty dark halls of the Terra-project.

It moved like a shark, less than a fin to notice in the sea of the dead.

"Hey HEY." Sahil woke shaking his head confused.

"what?"

Their voices both had the crackle of thirst and fatigue.

"Look"

He held Sahil with an arm around him and pointed. It took his tired eyes a minute or two to adjust. There was movement in the crowd. Not the random movements of zombies, flailing side to side. Something big. The growl of an engine, peaking every so often as it was revved went from imagination to reality. It was a car, or a truck, a pretty big truck. The crowd was parting around it. Adams beaming face looked up out of the drivers seat. He stopped metres from the roof, turned away, and then reversed back up until the roof shook with the impact. Charlie immediately read this, it meant 'Get on'. He hopped across valiantly. And held out his hand helping Sahil across the inches of gap between building and truck. Charlie banged twice on the roof. The engine peaked again and the crowds parted . The car chugged along towards the front doors of the building. Charlie lay on his back, relaxing on the cool steel roof the truck, after a day being baked of his moisture by the sun. Sahil was somewhat more cautious about their new ride, and stole glances over the sides. down into the crowds. He had only just found the gumption to reach his face all the way over when the sight of a decapitated hand stitched to the side of it recoiled him instantly. He lay on his back with charlie and felt the vibrations of the engine. the van stopped, turned and reversed as it had done before.

" Get your dad"

Adam whispered to the girl in the back.

" Now i can't get right up close, there will be a few hanging about behind the truck. "

"I've dealt with them before. "

" Okay Okay, password for the padlock is 666, choose something, you have two men on the roof that we just collected, get them something too."

" I'm going to reverse and knock them down, drive forward a bit, hopefully your open doors will block them, stay together and run to the doors."

" The men on the roof are charlie and Sahil."

The doors flung open. The right one was stopped in its track by the face of a zombie part trapped under Adam's wheel.

" Charlie! here."

A hand emerged from the rooftop and accepted the clubs willingly. The family rushed for the doors, protecting solveig in the middle. Erik went first stabbing the ones that lay. The doors woosheed open and they got in together. They sucked closed just as charlie and Sahil hopped down, Sahil slammed his hand against the door. "Charlie it's Alis's medical exams."

" One at a time please."

" You have to come back out, go through one at a time. We'll keep them back, quick"

The reality dawned quick.

"Solveig you first, stay here then get through those doors as quick as you can, it's safe in there."

Her eyes were brave and said 'I can do this' but her fists clenched her mother's clothing tight.

"Okay, we're going to step out, I'll come through next."

The doors sucked the atmosphere closed inside the room once her parents were out. She watched them fighting, stabbing in a group in the doorway.

"Welcome, Would you prefer verbal or physical analysis"

Tearing her focus away from her parents battle outside.

" Verbal"

The rest of what Alis said was hazy. She only heard the doors open behind her, her father looked back and shouted go. The shout was soundless in the chamber. She turned and ran through the door. Solveigs mother went into the chamber and looked helplessly on from beyond the glass. She turned to see Solveig on the other side looking on in horror at her distraught mother, and the glimpses of her father fighting. Erik and Sahil made it through the chamber, they stood huddled tight as a family, Sahil adopted in the time of terror. Charlie did not step through the doors. Time dragged on. Sahil stepped forward and looked out through two panes of glass he could see the violent movements of the zombies, but they were indiscernible. He covered his mouth. Charlie was dead, overcome, for him, he saved Sahil. Charlie was a warrior, he couldn't be dead.

"My friend"

Erik put his hand on Sahil's shoulder. Shaking him from his thoughts he ran for Ailbe's room.

Standing on the flattened fence, the mud was churned up beneath it, Vern looked on. The dying light briefly outlined the buildings and all those that wandered nearby. A few zombies injured, or lying crushed by the crowds, were silenced. The knives of his bodyguard were swift and they cleared the immediate area.

" I told you"

Roberte spat a clot of blood on the floor.

" We could have gone!"

Vern swivelled and crouched into an uppercut that sent him flying. Roberte's body lay in the mud.

" Piece of shit was right."

" It doesn't matter now, THEY'RE GONE!"

Vern shouted so loud that a few of the zombies from the crowd in front turned around. He clenched his fist tight.

"Deal with those."

His body guards ran to intercept the few that broke off at the noise. Their leader stood and thought. The squelching sound of cartilage and blood meeting a knife was too common to him now. Those in front had dealt with the zombies, and pressed forward to the remainder of the pack.

Charlie screamed as he hacked at the arm, jammed between the back doors of the truck. Blood was splatting onto his chest. His machete hit the metal and bone until it fell with a thud to the floor. He slammed the doors closed. Only when he was sure they were locked did he lie back resting his cold, wet blade on his stomach.

" Are you Okay, you're not bitten are you? Scratched?"

Charlie tried to wonder what would happen if he was.

" No, I'm fine."he answered after some time inspecting.

"We're going to cause a distraction, draw them away then come back."

The truck began its revving and coasting movements again. Charlie listened to the bodies thud off the sides of the truck but he was safe, and his eyes were closed. The light woke Charlie from his accidental sleep. Adam had opened the doors and held a hand out to him. He accepted it, weary from his sleep. he sat up, in the blood and an the dismembered arm he had hacked off, he dislodged it from under him and tossed it to the floor.

" Charlie it's good to see you."

Adam had a bowie knife in the hand that he hadn't offered Charlie.

" And you, we spent all day up on that roof you know."

"Who were the people."

" I ran into them on my way, Roberte told them about this place, he trusted them, as do i. "

"Roberte?"

"Dead"

Charlie sighed. His right hand's fingers had curled up like a claw, he had gripped the machete with such force that the fingers clasped around it without it there.

"Come, were going to start a fire, draw them away from the building, kill most of them as well hopefully, and launch ourselves into space!"

Adam had walked off. Charlie started to take heed of his surroundings, he couldn't hear Aliens any more. the room was bright and clean. Indoors. Charlie was in a garage. the electric shutters in front of him confirmed this. He looked around. There were dead littering the floor. Adam had obviously killed the few that made it in, tailgating the truck. He counted twelve, now lying in blood. Adam was making noise in another room, clanging objects and muttering. It was after the situations Charlie found himself in, in this case covered in blood staring at a truck smeared with guts and limbs. That Charlie thought about how unsafe the world was now, how it tried to kill you. There was nothing you could do to preclude this. It seemed that entropy had escalated on earth to a degree that was unbearable for organised life.

The family of three stood in the well lit, clean building. Erik felt safe, he knew this was essentially a bunker. It was the silence, the vague memories of being bumped into if you stood still for any amount of time on this floor. There were more offices now, more cubicles. The colours were the same though. The warmth of his child's hand and her clear worry brought him down on a knee to her level.

"Don't worry sweetie, we're safe now."

"where is Adam?"

"He's finding a way to get to us, Sahil, our new friend has gone to prepare, remember when i said we were going to space? to the moon?"

Sahil ran checking behind him, Ailbe was keeping up, for a man perennially in his dressing gown and slippers.

"Splendid greetings!"

He shouted at the new arrivals, turned onto the security console and began typing immediately.

" The truck has left, there's nothing out the front except, good lord there's hundreds of them."

"Can you rewind?"

The video jumped along in reverse. The van backed in, the doors open, Charlie leaps out backwards, begins beating them with a hammer. Ailbe paused the rewinding video just as it got to Sahil, leaving his face scrunched up as he ran towards the camera.

" I can only imagine Adam is concocting some great scheme, he knows the compound he will be fine, let's finalise our preparations for when they arrive."

Ailbe walked by and nodded at the family who still stood near the doorway.

When a slow rumble began at their feet. Fire lit up the sky from the gray block at the back of the dome. The tip of a rocket slowly appeared but picked up speed. everyone looked to the sky. their last chance of life away from the diseased planet, shooting towards the stars. Vern's back tightened. An arm came around his throat. Roberte drove the knife into his spine and twisted again, and again. only when his body began to sag did Roberte stop stabbing him. By the time the rocket had relinquished its hold on the ears and disappeared into a speck, Roberte was wearing Vern's gun belt, he held no weapon.

" We are STILL going to space, i know how to get us there."

Roberte's left eye was bruised so badly it was shut. He stood over the body of his oppressor. His coup successful. He looked on to the headquarters, that he could conquer now with an army.


End file.
